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SHOULD CIGARETTES BE BANNED?

Smoking kills about 443,000 Americans every year. Every day 28 Quebeckers die from smoke-related causes.

Cigarettes, not guns or bombs, are the deadliest artefacts in history. If we want to save lives and improve health, nothing else readily achievable would be as effective as an international ban on their sale. For those who recognize the state’s right to ban recreational drugs such as marijuna and ecstacy, a ban on cigarettes should be easy to accept. Tobacco kills far more people than those drugs.

No! One of the things we should have learned from Prohibition in the US is that banning substances just makes them more attractive and the main benefits go to organized crime.
That is surely why we have state-run casinos instead of banning gambling.
The state may have the right to ban things, but I think we should not be banning cigarettes, alcohol or drugs, we should be controlling them in other ways.

Cigarettes are already banned, (most public places) and there is an increasing social stigma attached to smoking. We can only hope that the smokers left will butt out, and maybe we should be considering more restrictions in cars & home where there are children. Teachers could report those poor little kids who come to school smelling like cigarette butts-There’s no excuse for that!

Re cigarettes, Caveat Emptor. I would prefer that they ban gum. Cigarettes may annoy or kill some people, but the sidewalks of NYC have 1/4″ of chewed gum on Times Square’s sidewalks, which annoys most if not all. The ladies stepped on the lumps, during the mid-summer heat waves, with the next step resulting in their losing their shoe which is now stuck to the sidewalk, and the ongoing bare foot now about to be glued to the sidewalk. BTW It’s a big time crime for anyone to buy or sell gum in Singapore. Is there a black market run by organized crime for gum. May be, the gumshoes don’t look for the product, they look to see if your gumming it.

WOW! I agree with J.
People who smoke really can’t afford kids and their life long needs & education. If they smoke in front of them, they probably smoked during pregnancy. While we’re at it, we should ban stupid people, drunks and teenagers from having kids too…

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